Missing driver found dead after Highway 1 crash near Spences Bridge: RCMP

One person is dead after a major crash involving two commercial trucks on Highway 1 between Cache Creek and Spences Bridge Thursday.

According to the RCMP, the crash happened at around 7 a.m. when the two vehicles collided head on while going around a corner. The tractor trailer heading northbound had come to a rest on a steep embankment on a CN rail track. A fire ignited due to the collision.

The incident shut a 20-kilometre stretch of the highway for almost the entire day.

Initially, police said one of the two drivers could not be located.

But in an update Thursday night, Insp. Chad Badry with BC Highway Patrol confirmed to CityNews that the driver of the northbound truck, a male from the Lower Mainland, had been located. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the southbound truck is cooperating with the investigation.

BC Emergency Health Services said earlier in the day Thursday that it dispatched two ground ambulances and an air ambulance after it received a call about the crash around 7 a.m.

“Paramedics cared for one patient with minor injuries who did not require transport to hospital. No other patients were transported to hospital,” EHS said in a statement.

A video posted to social media just after 8 a.m. Thursday shows a catastrophic scene on the highway by a cliff’s edge, with one heavily damaged semi seen on its side and the contents it was carrying strewn across the roadway.

The footage also shows another tractor trailer on fire, with dark smoke rising from the vehicle.

Highway 1 reopened to traffic just after 11:30 p.m. Thursday.

BC Highway Patrol – Kamloops has conduct of the investigation, and impairment by drugs and alcohol have been ruled out as factors in the crash.